Nicki Minaj’s husband, Kenneth Petty, has submitted an alleged 1994 letter as part of his defence against a civil lawsuit filed by Jennifer Hough, but Hough’s lawyer disputes the document’s authenticity and says her client did not write or sign it.
According to court documents obtained by TMZ, Petty submitted the purported letter, which he says was sent to a District Attorney in 1994 in an effort to have a rape charge against him dropped. The document claims that Hough’s original allegations were only “half true and half false” and offers a different account of the events that led to Petty’s criminal case.
In the document, Hough is purportedly quoted as saying that marks on her neck were not caused by choking but were instead “hickies” she had received from someone else. The letter also states that she had known Petty for many years.
The alleged letter describes an argument between the two after they had spent time together. It says Petty asked Hough to have sex with him again and that she refused, leading to another argument. According to the document, Petty then told her that she could leave if she had sex with him, and she agreed because she was already late for school and wanted to go home.
The document claims Hough later left Petty’s home angry and told a friend what had happened. According to the purported account, the friend encouraged her to report Petty for rape because she had not wanted to have sex with him a second time.
The letter also portrays Hough as regretting the situation after other students became aware of the allegations. It says she was sorry for the trouble caused to Petty and his family and wanted to put the matter behind them.
Petty is also relying on another alleged inconsistency in Hough’s account. In his filing, he claims she previously told a friend that another person was present in the room during the alleged assault before later changing that account. He also disputes descriptions of whether a weapon was involved, arguing that accounts have variously referred to a gun or a knife.
Hough’s attorney, Marjorie Mesidor, strongly disputes Petty’s use of the alleged letter. She told TMZ that Hough has never recanted her allegations and questioned how a document supposedly written by a 16-year-old could have been produced in the form presented by Petty. Mesidor also said the signature on the document is not Hough’s.
Petty was convicted of first-degree attempted rape in April 1995 in connection with the incident involving Hough, who had accused him of assault when they were both 16. The current dispute, however, concerns a separate civil lawsuit filed by Hough in 2021.
In that lawsuit, Hough alleges that Petty pressured her for years to publicly withdraw or recant her accusation. Petty denies those allegations and is asking the court to dismiss the case.
Petty’s latest filing also challenges Hough’s reasons for bringing the civil lawsuit. He alleges that she became interested in pursuing the case after he began his relationship with Minaj, whom he describes as a wealthy and famous musician. According to Petty, Hough believed Minaj’s financial resources would make a settlement possible.
Hough disputes that account. Her lawyer’s position is that the alleged 1994 letter is not genuine and that Hough has not withdrawn her original allegations.
The competing accounts leave the authenticity and significance of the purported letter for the court to determine. The filing itself does not establish that Hough wrote or signed the document, and the court has not yet resolved the issues raised in the current civil dispute.
